CLARK FREEPORT — The agricultural sector marked Labor Day with a demand for a P750 national minimum wage, job security, humane working conditions and end to contractualization.
“Millions of agriworkers in haciendas and plantations growing export crops, such as sugarcane, oil palm, cavendish bananas, pineapple, and tobacco, are one of the most exploited sectors among workers,” said Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura vice chair Rep. Ariel Casilao in a statement.
He described agricultural workers as “the productive force behind the country’s export crop economy but they endure low wages, lack of benefits, insecure employment, and hazardous working conditions.”
Marking Labor Day yesterday, Casilao said “we join the call of millions of Filipino workers for a P750 national minimum wage, an end to of all forms of contractualization, and the guarantee that they are safe in their places of work, especially in times of calamity.”
Casilao noted that in the sugar industry, which contributes more than P70 billion to the country’s economy per year, sugarworkers’ wages range from P80-P150.
He said such low wages are made worse by piece-rate scheme or “pakyawan” which, in turn, are “further aggravated by tiempo muerto or off -milling season that can last from 4-6 months amid the worsening effects of drought.”
“Similarly, while the banana export industry was valued at $730 million in 2016, banana plantation workers’ wages in Mindanao are at P234 to P335 per day for contractual workers who make up majority of the labor force. This is further reduced to P121 to P208 per day as plantation workers are hired through fake labor cooperatives that make automatic deductions for capital build-up, cooperative savings, and loans, among others,” Casilao said.
He also noted that “transnational corporations, such as Dole-Stanfilco and Sumifru, get to hide behind these fake labor cooperatives to escape their employer-employee obligations.”
“Other plantation workers, such as those in the palm oil industry, are also paid below the minimum wage and placed under contractual or casual employment. This deprives them of benefits and CBA coverage that regular workers have despite the length of their service already counting to decades,” he said.
Casilao said that “through all these oppressive conditions and exploitative practices, corporations and their cohorts can only be held accountable if workers organize themselves and form unions. It is through their collective strength that they will be able to assert their legitimate right for decent wages, regular employment, and safe working conditions.”
